tcpip95
Contributor
We snuck down to Islamorada for a weekend of diving and just getting away from it all. We dove with Sea Monkeys - 2 dives on Saturday, and one "ad hoc" dive Sunday morning. Jim was the captain of the boat, and Colleen was our dive master. We had a total of 5 of us on Saturday (Sea Monkey operates a 6-pack). Did two dives ("the Aquarium" and "China"). Vis was about 35'. Plenty of fish, coral, 4 nurse sharks, a couple of Moray eels, and a turtle. Colleen was an excellent dive master, and made sure that we all saw everything. Great underwater communications with all of us. It was one of the most relaxing dives we've been on.
Now for the best part....
My wife and I decided that we wanted to spend some time working on emergency procedures, as well as experiment with some new equipment. Bill & Colleen (owners) and Jim all agreed to take us out - just the two of us - so that we could get the dive in before we drove home later in the day. They took us to a shallow reef (about 10' depth), and we were able to get some time doing flooded mask drills, lost mask drill, recover floating regulator, OOA buddy breathing, purging mask, and UW communications. We all did a thorough briefing beforehand on what our actual emergency procedures would be while conducting the emergency drills - Colleen would be the "spotter" while my wife and I worked on the different emergency scenarios. It was great to just get some "emergency drill" time in.
We were also able to try using a couple of FFMs (Ocean Reef Neptune Space) with the GSM communication system (didn't really like them). Again, we pre-briefed these procedures while on the boat, and everybody knew their roles and responsibilities. Colleen worked with me while I went through the emergency procedures associated with a FFM (flooded mask, remove/replace/purge mask, switch to backup regulator, use backup mask, etc.). My wife then tried one as well, but just to test visibility, communications, etc. with Colleen again being our spotter. We ended up returning the FFMs as it just wasn't our cup of tea, but the real story was the willingness of Sea Monkeys to go the extra mile to take just the two of us out to practice. They could have easily said "no", but they didn't. They worked as a team to ensure everything we did was safe, evaluated our emergency procedures, and we had fun as well.
Many thanks to Bill, Colleen, and Jim for a great weekend. We're looking forward to diving with them again next month.
Now for the best part....
My wife and I decided that we wanted to spend some time working on emergency procedures, as well as experiment with some new equipment. Bill & Colleen (owners) and Jim all agreed to take us out - just the two of us - so that we could get the dive in before we drove home later in the day. They took us to a shallow reef (about 10' depth), and we were able to get some time doing flooded mask drills, lost mask drill, recover floating regulator, OOA buddy breathing, purging mask, and UW communications. We all did a thorough briefing beforehand on what our actual emergency procedures would be while conducting the emergency drills - Colleen would be the "spotter" while my wife and I worked on the different emergency scenarios. It was great to just get some "emergency drill" time in.
We were also able to try using a couple of FFMs (Ocean Reef Neptune Space) with the GSM communication system (didn't really like them). Again, we pre-briefed these procedures while on the boat, and everybody knew their roles and responsibilities. Colleen worked with me while I went through the emergency procedures associated with a FFM (flooded mask, remove/replace/purge mask, switch to backup regulator, use backup mask, etc.). My wife then tried one as well, but just to test visibility, communications, etc. with Colleen again being our spotter. We ended up returning the FFMs as it just wasn't our cup of tea, but the real story was the willingness of Sea Monkeys to go the extra mile to take just the two of us out to practice. They could have easily said "no", but they didn't. They worked as a team to ensure everything we did was safe, evaluated our emergency procedures, and we had fun as well.
Many thanks to Bill, Colleen, and Jim for a great weekend. We're looking forward to diving with them again next month.
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